Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was home to American Indians and early settlers from Germany, Ireland, and Scotland, who followed the Indians' Warrior Path and turned it into the Great Wagon Road. Tidewater gentry crossed the Blue Ridge and brought the practice of enslaving African Americans to the region. The area's limestone soils and rivers and streams supported successful agriculture, and when the Civil War erupted in 1861, both North and South sought to control it. After recovering in the postwar years, the valley again became a vital transportation corridor. In the fall of 1864, as both the Union and the Confederacy fought to the finish, General Jubal Early's Confederates launched a predawn attack at Cedar Creek on October 19 and drove Union troops out of their lines and through Middletown in disarray, but many Confederates stopped to collect Union prisoners and supplies left behind, allowing Union General Philip Sheridan to rally his troops and turn the Confederate victory into a total defeat, leaving the Shenandoah Valley in Union hands.

Photo: Devry Becker Jones

Photo: Devry Becker Jones

Strasburg, Virginia · USA